Plugins introduce lots of hiss...

[Dreamer]

How do I get around this?  My favorite: Cakewalk FxEq, main culprit. If I bounced the track with the plugin effect will it still hiss?

[Grem]

33 minutes ago, Dreamer said:

 If I bounced the track with the plugin effect will it still hiss?

Try and see if it does. I am not sure why it hisses though. Digital plugins usually don't hiss. 

Can't remember the plugin so I will have to wait to get home and see what I find out. I am curious for sure. 

[Dreamer]

Yeah still hiss if I bounce. If I mute the track the project is clean, so I know it's the track. I turn off the plugins and the track is clean. Turn the plugins back on and I get hiss. I tried creating a new project with just that track with the same plugins and I get the same result....hiss. And these are my favorite plugins too, (Cakewalk FxEq and Antares Microphone Modeler).

[Matthew Sorrels]

Hiss in plugins can often be copy protection, do you have the license (iLok) for Antares Microphone Modeler?  Might want to check the iLok License Manager.

[Starship Krupa]

Do you have your gain staging dialed in? Plenty of level going in to the FX rack?

Also, is it just these two FX or does it happen with any others? Do you hear the hiss with the transport stopped?

Is "Cakewalk FxEq" the same as Sonitus:fx Equalizer (or Sonitus Equalizer), the paragraphic that comes with CbB?

Edited May 25, 2019 by Starship Krupa

[Grem]

@Starship Krupa No they are not the same. Those are some older plugins from CW. They maybe DirectX. Not sure, I can't remember.  I went to look for them last night and realized I didn't install them when I built this machine years ago!

 

The next thing I was going to ask was about his gain staging also. 

Also, what kind of trk is it? Did you record it? Does the trk hiss with no audio on it?

[chuckebaby]

It would be helpful to know what kind of tracks we are talking about.

You didn't even mention if they Audio or midi. If Audio then what does the signal look like ?

[Dreamer]

3 hours ago, Grem said:

@Starship Krupa

Also, what kind of trk is it? Did you record it? Does the trk hiss with no audio on it?

I would of mentioned MIDI if that were the case. This is audio. Its a vocal track.

Without effects or EQ going out to the bus the signal peaks at about -22dB.  Coming out from the bus to the Master bus the signal peaks at about -27dB so my gain staging is progressively subtle.

And I repeat this is without effects, EQ or plugins.

 By itself this is a very clean track with no hiss.

I put the plugins in the bus. I've got other plugins in there too but they do not introduce hiss at all like Cakewalk FxEq, and to a lessor degree Antares Mic Modeler.

Edited May 25, 2019 by Dreamer
Bad English...

[Grem]

Dreamer, I am still thinking that you have hiss on the audio trk. And when you put it through the fx it gets amped up. I have had many time recorded a vocal, guitar and thought it was a good take, but somewhere down the line I notice a hiss that I didn't hear before. When I trace it down I found that my original recording had the hiss that I just never heard until it was processed. Bad recording on my part was the culprit. 

 

Not knowing your level of knowledge in recording, have you checked this out? With your levels peaking at -22db to -27db that would make the noise floor much closer than you may think.

 

Try this, put those plugins on a new project in tracks all by themselves. Do they hiss?

[Dreamer]

Yes it still introduces hiss, I had tried that already. I've also exported the track to my Cool Edit Pro wave editor to inspect it and it is thoroughly clean, no hiss at all. It's the plugin. If I play with the plugins parameters the hiss level reduces.

Edited May 25, 2019 by Dreamer